Campaign Finance in 2016

This year’s presidential race has been weird in a lot of ways, and it’s been outside the expectations box in terms of Campaign Finance, too.  That’s partly because the GOP candidate is not to the liking of some of the big money on that side (the Koch brothers come to mind).

But that’s not to say that money has suddenly ceased to exert an inordinate (and unhealthy) influence in our politics.  Those same Koch brothers, for instance, are pouring millions into other races (Senate races in Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania, for instance), and those dollars are certain to warp the results.  As I’ve argued before in these pages, the Koch brothers and their allies are “smart, determined and have the deep pockets to keep investing in their small, self-serving view of the world until they bring it into reality.”

That’s why efforts to diminish the influence of money in our politics are so crucial, whether or not they’re in the presidential headlines.  Hillary Clinton supports a wide range of proposals aimed at “Restor[ing] Integrity to America’s Elections,” and they start with Overturning Citizens United, and extend to “Ending Secret, Unaccountable Money in Politics“, “Amplifying the Voices of Everyday Americans” and many more concrete steps, large and small.  This is leadership that has thought about the issues and has realistic, workable ideas for addressing them.